he: A Novel(27)

In order to laugh at Chaplin, one must try to forget them.





53


But who is he to excoriate Chaplin, a mortal before his god? Who is he to question Chaplin’s ways?

He did not know Chaplin’s poverty.

He did not bequeath a mother to the lunatic asylum, a small boy leading a disturbed woman by the hand to the gates of Cane Hill, there to be consigned to the aphotic regions of its wards, the aspect of its buildings being inimical to daylight.

He did not endure the orphanage, or the streets.

He did not suffer want.

Perhaps this is why Chaplin’s ambition so exceeds his own: because Chaplin must scale such heights as to render the depths concealed, and thereby obliterate memory.

Perhaps this is why Chaplin’s appetites are so ravenous: because Chaplin starved in tenements where even the rats went hungry, and was mothered by a mind in decay.

Perhaps this is why Chaplin’s need is so great: because Chaplin survived on so little for so long.

And perhaps this is why Chaplin despoils young girls in his bed: because Chaplin had no childhood of his own, and so is driven to consume the childhood of others in reprisal.

Such pain, such pain.





54


So Mae has been erased from this new version of his life under construction, just as Madelyn has been erased from Babe’s. He does not miss Mae, but the touch of her lingers. He feels it upon him, even with Lois. Mae has been part of his life for too long to be banished so easily. He tries to avoid Franklin Avenue, where he lived with Mae for years. It helps that it is so far north, away from Lois’s apartment.

A little.

It helps a little.

He is astray, dislocated. Mae has left him with a name that is not his own, and now he cannot escape it. He has no character on the screen, and a manufactured identity away from it. All is pretense, but we must be careful what we pretend to be, because that is what we must become.

This he understands.

All is pretense.

And all is character.

The Audience does not flock to see Chaplin or Buster Keaton because of the gags alone. The Audience does not thrive solely on repetition but also on character, and it is the character that cannot change.

This he understands.

If the character cannot change, then the character’s fate is fixed. The character cannot escape the actions of fate, because the character cannot escape himself. The character cannot learn, because to learn is to be altered.

This he understands.

But it is no way for a man to abide in real life.

Yet Chaplin, who sleeps with young girls, must be the Little Tramp, and nothing in his life that might cause the Audience to believe otherwise can be permitted to come to light.

Yet Buster Keaton, who is a drunk and a womanizer, must be Great Stone Face, and nothing that might cause the Audience to believe otherwise can be permitted to come to light.

He does not have his own character, not yet, but he will. It is emerging slowly. He senses it. Once he has identified it, the process will begin. It will become fixed in him, and he in it. He will not be able to escape it, even should he wish to do so, because in it will lie his hopes of success.

All is character, but character is pretense.

And his character already has a name.

His character has his name, a nomenclature assumed that now cannot be abjured.

This he understands.





55


He struggles to liberate himself from Joe Rock, because his contract with Joe Rock has more clauses than Shakespeare. Warren Doane, Hal Roach’s business manager, goes through the contract twice and then has to lie down for an hour.

He is shackled to Joe Rock as an actor, but not in any other regard. As long as he does not act, he owes Joe Rock nothing. Meanwhile Warren Doane, now recovered, begins work on the contractual knots. So while Warren Doane negotiates, and Joe Rock stonewalls, he writes and directs for Hal Roach. They pair him with Jimmy Finlayson.

Did you kill Mae? Jimmy Finlayson asks.

– No, I didn’t kill her.

– They say you put her on a boat to Australia.

– That isn’t true either.

– I hope it’s not. If it were, I’d have asked you to put Emily on board with her. Then we could have sunk it.

He works alongside Jimmy Parrott, who is still taking diet pills and still having fits. Charley Parrott, Jimmy Parrott’s brother, is moving on from helming Our Gang pictures to become a comic in his own right. Harold Lloyd has departed from the lot, gone to seek his independence, and Hal Roach must keep the studio’s momentum going. Hal Roach is not averse to elevating Charley Parrott, so Charley Parrott is now Charley Chase, and is making two-reel pictures. Charley Chase worked with Chaplin and Roscoe Arbuckle. Charley Chase worked with Mack Sennett. Charley Chase is smart and sophisticated. Charley Chase understands that character is all.

He regards Charley Chase closely, because Charley Chase is struggling to handle the pressure. Charley Chase drinks. They all drink, although he drinks less now that Mae is no longer around, but it does not impede the progress of their work. This may be the only way that Charley Chase can continue to function, with the aid of brandy and champagne – well, brandy, champagne, and the set of hand-carved meerschaum pipes that Charley Chase utilizes solely for the purpose of smoking marijuana behind the shooting stages.

When Charley Chase is not filming, or drunk, or high, Charley Chase fucks petite blondes while BeBe, his wife, raises their daughters to be good girls. Charley Chase reads his daughters stories at night. Charley Chase is not a bad guy. Even BeBe knows this, which is why she pretends not to notice the blondes. She wishes her husband would not cast them in his pictures, though. It makes them harder to ignore if she has to view them magnified on a screen before her.